The specific name is in honor of the German naturalist, paleontologist and zoologist Reinhold Friedrich Hensel (1826–1881), who collected the first two specimens from which the species was described.

This species is accidentally listed twice in the Checklist of Rio Grande do Sul State (2009):[5] as Drymaeus henselii (Martens, 1868) (subfamily Bulimulinae, family Orthalicidae) and as Gonyostomus henselii (Martens, 1868) in family Strophocheilidae.

This species also inhabits Santa Catarina in Brazil (listed as Drymaeus henselii (Martens, 1868)).

[6] The shell is perforate, ovate-turreted, irregularly striate and sculptured with very delicate, very close spiral lines.

The color of the shell is whitish, painted with brown streaks, which are confluent in the middle of each whorl.